10.1184/R1/6619523.v1 S. W. Schlosser S. W. Schlosser J. L. Griffin J. L. Griffin D. F. Nagle D. F. Nagle G. R. Ganger G. R. Ganger Designing Computer Systems with MEMS-based Storage (CMU-CS-00-137) Carnegie Mellon University 2000 Data Storage 2000-05-01 00:00:00 Journal contribution https://kilthub.cmu.edu/articles/journal_contribution/Designing_Computer_Systems_with_MEMS-based_Storage_CMU-CS-00-137_/6619523 For decades the RAM-to-disk memory hierarchy gap has plagued computer architects. An exciting new storage technology based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is poised to fill a large portion of this performance gap, significantly reduce system power consumption, and enable many new applications. This paper explores the system-level implications of integrating MEMS-based storage into the memory hierarchy. Results show that standalone MEMS-based storage reduces I/O stall times by 4-74X over disks and improves overall application runtimes by 1.9-4.4X. When used as on-board caches for disks, MEMS-based storage improves I/O response time by up to 3.5X. Further, the energy consumption of MEMS-based storage is 10-54X less than that of state-of-the-art low-power disk drives. The combination of the high-level physical characteristics of MEMS-based storage (small footprints, high shock tolerance) and the ability to directly integrate MEMS-based storage with processing leads to such new applications as portable gigabit storage systems and ubiquitous active storage nodes.